Donovan's effort in Super Clasico earns him MLS Player of the Week

May 1, 2007, 1:00 GMT

Carson, CA - With his inspired goal and two assist performance in the Super Clasico on Saturday night at The Home Depot Center, here, Los Angeles Galaxy captain Landon Donovan won the week four Major League Soccer Player of the Week award.

After a scoreless tie to open the season in Houston, and a 2-1 loss at THDC in week two against Dallas, Donovan spearheaded the Galaxy's first win of the season, a 3-1 contest over Los Angeles neighbor CD Chivas USA.

'Everyone it seems had come to their conclusions after just two games for us and like we had stressed all week, we had played well for everything outside of 15 minutes against Dallas, and we paid for it,' Donovan said. 'We should have scored at Houston and could have won that game and should have gotten a point against Dallas, but it seemed that everyone (outside of the team) wanted to panic. So it's nice just to get some points and know that we have games in hand and that we're in good shape.'

Donovan scored his first goal of the 2007 season in the eighth minute Saturday, when he swooped in to convert after a miscue between Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan and defender Claudio Suarez.

'That was huge, but also to get a break like that,' Donovan said. 'It was a great ball by Martino but (Brad Guzan and Claudio Suarez) collided and it just squirted free and my eyes just lit up. I knew that if we could just get one, good things would come and that's what happened.'

His first assist of the evening came nine minutes later on a give-and-go play with Kevin Harmse. Donovan slotted a short pass between two defenders to Harmse, who knifed into the Chivas USA penalty area and beat Guzan to the lower left corner of the goal. Donovan helped put the game out of reach in the 78th minute. With his team up 2-1, Donovan controlled the ball in midfield and raced down right side, hurdled a tackle attempt by Lawson Vaughn, and found an onrushing Cobi Jones in front of the net. The ball reached Jones in stride and he buried it into the back of the net.

In his seventh MLS season, Donovan has been named MLS Player of the Week five times, twice with the San Jose Earthquakes and three times with the Galaxy. Donovan joins Real Salt Lake's Jeff Cunningham (week one), the Kansas City Wizards' Eddie Johnson (week two) and CD Chivas USA's Maykel Galindo (week three) as the fourth winner of the award this season.

© 2007 The Sports Network